Pic's of my eggs being candled **DUW**

[dr del]

Hi,

Bear with me as this is and old camera I have no natural affinity for photography.

The pics have all had the lightness raised and the contrastas well as the camera is incapable of getting a good pic in the dim light needed.I only managed to get useable pics of 2 out of my 3 eggs - the third is really dented and I will need someone to candle it while I take the pics or vica versa.

I just wondered if anyone has any opinions about the viability of the eggs - discovered in the damp box on 30/09/06 and incubated in a home made incubator I normally use for leopard gecko and cornsnake eggs. The purple marks are from the gentian violet (an anti-fungal preparation) i used to mark the top of the eggs to prevent accidental turning.


Egg 1






Egg2






The tubs they are presently in are too small to get the lids on (to prevemnt hatchlings roaming loose) so I was planning on moving the eggs to larger tubs which I have already in the incubator to balance the humidity temp with the existing boxes. Does anyone have any recomendations about the least problematic time to do this ? I was thinking about waiting till they started denting or about a week before what I think is the earliest possible hatching date (25/11/06 ? please advise).

None of the eggs have any sign of mould or discolouration unlike the other 2 in the clutch which I discarded when they went hard,translucent and smelly.

The incubator is an old fishtank clad in 2" polystyrene half full of water with an aquarium heater in it so the humidity is about 100% and the temps fairly stable between 31-33 c although I have occasionally seen lower and higher temps on rare occasions.



dr del

[tigerlily]

It looks like you have some nice healthy veins, and it looks likely that they are fertile. Unfortunately there is no guarantee that they will hatch though.

[tmlowe5704]

Is 100% humidity too high? I have read lots of places 85-90 was good, but just curous now.

[fulner_20012001]

do u have any pics u can post of ur incubator an thats kinda funny the date u put up
for the earliest possible hatching date is my b/day 11/25

[Evan Jamison]

Is 100% humidity too high? I have read lots of places 85-90 was good, but just curous now.

Nope! I try to keep my egg boxes at %100, but the eggs will tell you if something is off. Start denting early if it is too low, and get quite firm if they are taking on too much water (usually from the medium used, not the humidity in the air).

-Evan

[piranhaking]

I see veins in all of the pictures there, so i would assume they are all good.

[lillyorchid]

Awesome looking eggs you got there!

[dr del]

Hi folks,


Yeah I know they can still die at any stage of the proceedings but fingers,arms,legs and eyes crossed eh?


fulner_20012001,

sure here are some shots of the incubator - and some of the eggs as well

The badly dented third egg is a worry - from reading about the best I can hope for is an undersized hatchling.















While this incubator was perfect for cornsnakes and leopard geckos I think it will need replacing (or at least renovating) if ever all my females decided to breed as its just not designed for eggs that large.

If I were to build it again with pythons in mind I'd probably use a 36 inch tank at least and splash out on a better heater with a seperate thermostat.Its one of those things I built years ago in an emergency and then never replaced because it kept on working.

The green mesh things in the first photo are the lids for the ice cream boxes I intend to put the eggs in near hatching time - I also drilled some air/drainage holes in the tubs slightly above and below the vermiculite level to prevent waterlogging.I cut the centre of the lid out with a stanley knife and siliconed in the mesh then let it cure for a couple of days (well its bin over a week now )- should allow air circulation and easy viewing while hopefully containing any little wrigglers.

I open the incubator once a day and waft about a bit (technical term ) to prevent the air going stale.


If I've forgotten anything shout out - oh and will be setting up one of the feeder tanks to house the hatchlings in small tubs tomorrow with any luck (some digging in closets for spare heatmats required).



dr del